'Mr. Robot' hews close to current events, sometimes so close it's 'an out-of-body experience'

Robot" is never far from the pulse of current events. A couple of weeks ago, the dystopian computer hacker drama was in mid-shoot at an FBI field office when news broke that bureau Director James Comey had been fired. "One of the lines of dialogue is referencing Comey," Sam Esmail, the show's creator, recalled. "That was a little surreal and kind of an out-of-body experience." Esmail might as easily be describing the USA Network series, whose dark and downbeat second season unfolded much within the imagination of its mentally unstable antihero, Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek), as he fought to free himself from his manipulative alter-ego, Mr. Robot (Christian Slater). By season's end, fsociety -- the underground hacktivist group led by the sidelined Elliot -- was shattered, and a deadly, explosive plot hatched by Mr. Robot and the Dark Army, a cryptic Chinese organization, was about to go off. Elliot himself lay bleeding, shot by a character he believed to be a delusional figment. The show's license to be uncanny is endorsed by the headlines, argues its star. "As ridiculous as this sounds, I feel that I'm reading my scripts as if I could be reading the L.A. Times tomorrow," said Malek, speaking by phone during a lunch break from a location shoot on New York City's Broadway. "I would approach Sam and say, 'Do you really believe that this is possible?'